Louisville guard Russ Smith dunks the ball during the first half of the Cardinals' game earlier this month at Rutgers.

Written by

Jonathan Lintner
| The Courier-Journal

University of Louisville guard Russ Smith and Kentucky forward Julius Randle were named to the Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 list released Wednesday in the race to become college basketball's player of the year.

Smith, a senior, is coming off his best week of the season. He averaged 20.5 points per game and hit 52.4 percent of his shots in U of L's victories over Houston and Connecticut. He's averaging 21.5 points in conference games.

Randle, a freshman, is UK's leading scorer at 16.7 points per game and also averages 10.6 rebounds. He hits 54.5 percent of his shots. ...